This invention relates generally to xerographic copying apparatus, and more particularly, it relates to the heat and pressure fixing of particulate thermoplastic toner by direct contact with a heated fusing member.
In the process of xerography, a light image of an original to be copied is typically recorded in the form of a latent electrostatic image upon a photosensitive member with subsequent rendering of the latent image visible by the application of electroscopic marking particles, commonly referred to as toner. The visual toner image can be either fixed directly upon the photosensitive member or transferred from the member to another support, such as a sheet of plain paper, with subsequent affixing of the image thereto in one of various ways, for example, as by heat and pressure.
In order to affix or fuse electroscopic toner material onto a support member by heat and pressure, it is necessary to elevate the temperature of the toner material to a point at which the constituents of the toner material coalesce and become tacky while simultaneously applying pressure. This action causes the toner to flow to some extent into the fibers or pores of support members or otherwise upon the surfaces thereof. Thereafter, as the toner material cools, solidification of the toner material occurs causing the toner material to be bonded firmly to the support member. In both the xerographic as well as the electrographic recording arts, the use of thermal energy and pressure for fixing toner images onto a support member is old and well known.
One approach to heat and pressure fusing of electroscopic toner images onto a support has been to pass the support with the toner images thereon between a pair of opposed roller members, at least one of which is internally heated. During operation of a fusing system of this type, the support member to which the toner images are electrostatically adhered is moved through the nip formed between the rolls with the toner image contacting the fuser roll thereby to effect heating of the toner images within the nip. By controlling the heat transferred to the toner, virtually no offset of the toner particles from the copy sheet to the fuser roll is experienced under normal conditions. This is because the heat applied to the surface of the roller is insufficient to raise the temperature of the surface of the roller above the "hot offset" temperature of the toner whereat the toner particles in the image areas of the toner liquefy and cause a splitting action in the molten toner resulting in "hot offset." Splitting occurs when the cohesive forces holding the viscous toner mass together is less than the adhesive forces tending to offset it to a contacting surface such as a fuser roll.
Occasionally, however, toner particles will be offset to the fuser roll by an insufficient application of heat to the surface thereof (i.e. "cold" offsetting); by imperfections in the properties of the surface of the roll; or by the toner particles insufficiently adhering to the copy sheet by the electrostatic forces which normally hold them there. In such a case, toner particles may be transferred to the surface of the fuser roll with subsequent transfer to the backup roll during periods of time when no copy paper is in the nip.
Moreover, toner particles can be picked up by the fuser and/or backup roll during fusing of duplex copies or simply from the surroundings of the reproducing apparatus.
One arrangement for minimizing the foregoing problems, particularly that which is commonly referred to as "offsetting," has been to provide a fuser roll with an outer surface or covering of polytetrafluoroethylene, known by the trademark "Teflon" to which a release agent such as silicone oil is applied, the thickness of the "Teflon" being on the order of several mils and the thickness of the oil being less than 1 micron. Alternatively, a thin layer of silicone rubber 5-10 mils thick may be used. A silicone rubber layer provides conformability with the paper roughness resulting in more uniform fixing and image gloss. Silicone based (polydimethylsiloxane) oil which possess a relatively low surface energy, have been found to be materials that are suitable for use in the heated fuser roll environment where "Teflon" constitutes the outer surface of the fuser roll. In practice, a thin layer of silicone oil is applied to the surface of the heated roll to form an interface between the roll surface and the toner images carried on the support material. Thus, a low surface energy layer is presented to the toner as it passes through the fuser nip and thereby prevents toner from offsetting to the fuser roll surface.
A fuser roll construction of the type described above is fabricated by applying in any suitable manner a solid layer of abhesive material to a rigid core or substrate such as the solid "Teflon" outer surface or covering of the aforementioned arrangement.
Donor roll RAM (release agent management) systems have been used as part of roll fuser apparatus for some time. Such a RAM system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,549 issued on Jul. 29, 1980 to Moser. This patent illustrates a heat and pressure roll fusing apparatus for fixing toner images to copy substrates, the toner comprising a thermoplastic resin. The apparatus includes an internally heated, fuser roll cooperating with a backup or pressure roll to form a nip through which the copy substrates pass with the images contacting the heated roll. The pressure roll is the softer of the two rolls, therefore, the nip is formed by the harder fuser roll indenting the softer pressure roll. The heated fuser roll is characterized by an outer layer or surface which by way of example is fabricated from a silicon rubber or Viton material to which a low viscosity polymeric release fluid is applied. Release fluid is contained in a sump from which it is dispensed by means of a metering roll and a donor roll, the former of which contacts the release fluid in the sump and the latter of which contacts the surface of the heated fuser roll. The oil picked up by the metering roll after it is rotated through the release fluid oil is metered to a very thin film on the metering roll by a metering blade.
In many applications oil is pumped into a trough wherein it saturates and covers a swipper wick. The metering roll is then loaded to interfere with the swipper wick. The function of the wick is to prevent air entrapment between the moving metering roll and the stationary oil. In the above described designs the oil flow pattern must accommodate large quantities of oil that are pumped by the metering roll up to the metering blade and then metered off the rolls. With tight space constraints this can be a challenge.
In a configuration where the roll enters a pool of oil, the roll ends get coated with a thick film of oil. During steady running this excess oil can get onto the donor roll if it is longer than the metering roll. If the metering roll is the longest roll then running problems are avoided but standby and startup problems occur. Oil that is on the roll end, above the metering blade, flows down to the blade and is wicked axially down the blade-roll contact capillary. This results in excess oil being applied to the fuser roll. The problems associated with oil on the roll ends are commonly referred to as oil slinging.
Heretofore, an unnecessary amount of handling of the oil of such RAM systems has been required and the open pool of oil associated with such systems can be easily spilled. The foregoining renders such RAM systems undesirable.